Fell Down a Hole
by ravenous.bunny
Summary: Alice in Wonderland-meets-Bleach fanfic! Constructive critcism works, but no haters, ok? "I feel pain of my wound… the silk of my dress… the breeze surrounding us… Every color, every texture, every word… Everything's in such detail! This is no dream."


_I feel pain of my wound… the silk of my dress… the breeze surrounding us… Every color, every texture, every word… Everything's in such detail! _

_This is no dream._

"Here, Alice! Wear this." Jenna, the only one I could remotely compare to a friend, clipped a black bow the size of my palm in my hair. "It goes perfectly with your clothes!"

It was a debutante – in essence, I was coming of age and showing it off with a group of nine other sixteen-year-old girls. Everyone was required to wear a white dress – which was perfectly fine with me. As long as the guidelines kept it acceptable for me to wear black ribbons, black lace gloves, carry a black fan, and wear black shoes. Well, the fan was _mostly_ black, anyway. I figured since I was painting it anyway, I may as well paint a bunny in the middle of it.

My Great Aunt Lola, who was supposedly my only living relative, would have a heart attack when she met up with us backstage. Jenna had fits of laughter, mostly at the absurdity of my determination to wear black (which she found foolish, though she never said it directly).

I stared at myself in the mirror. My hair was normally in medium layers, falling just above my shoulders with bangs just above my eye. However, Lola insisted on having a hairstylist for me on this occasion, and that hairstylist knew nothing but hairspray and bobby pins – resulting in hair tugged back so tightly I felt like my face was going to stretch several inches by the end of the night.

White toulle, white feathers, white fans – all representing purity. Well, they did a good job, because I was gagging on the purity by the fifth minute in that dressing room.

"It's almost time, ladies!" A deep, yet somewhat feminine voice bellowed through the giant room, echoing across the vanity tables. I wasn't sure whether this was a man or a woman speaking, but I knew that if I had to deal with one more old lady straightening my dress or hair and cooing about when they were younger, I was going to ditch that place.

I was on the edge of running away, anyhow. Jenna was nice and all, but she was hardly a confidante. Lola wouldn't really miss me – I was pretty sure she wasn't even really related to me, and only claimed to be my aunt because I somehow had thousands and thousands in the bank. Most would call me lucky, which, in the perspective of food and a roof over my head, I was – however, relationships were not my strongsuit.

This was bound to change.

"Oh, please wear the bow! Please?"

Jenna was in my face, puppy-dog eyed and pleading for my submission.

"Yeah, okay," I shrugged.

"Yay!" She stood upright and straightened my hair some more. Unfortunately, she was not an old lady, and I could not use her as an excuse to ditch.

_But who would I excuse myself to, anyway?_ I thought. _No one, that's who, because I'd be on my own. Alone and free. …That's a little scary._

"Okay, I think I'm nice and groomed now," I smiled a little, staring at her in the mirror. _I'm sick of you playing with my hair._

"Oh, just a little more. Your hair is so rebellious sometimes! It's so funny," she giggled.

_Funny? _I shrugged indifferently.

She stared at me bewildered a moment. _Nothing against you Jenna, but we're not all the same. No offense but rebellious hair isn't exactly a laugh riot._ Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the semi-femi voice spoke again.

"Get in line, ladies!"

"Oh! It's time!"

I smiled weakly and stood up as she bustled to get in line, which was in alphabetical order by last name. Jenna Orkin was third in line. I, Alice Bree, was second only to Fiona Belle.

Hurrah.

The dressing room led to a stage that looked out on a huge lawn filled with white tables, at which sat old ladies (cheering on their granddaughters) and young men (excited for romance). After the debutantes were introduced and performed a special recital (special here meaning boring) there was a social dinner at which several stuffy rich guys will hit on you and pretend you're interested in them.

Hurrah times two.

_It's time for me to leave. It's time for me to leave. It's time for me to leave._

I couldn't stop thinking it. Everyone's words flowed in one ear and out the other, completely bypassing my recognition. I just followed Fiona as she headed backstage and was greeted by her mother and two stylists. I was greeted by a distraught Lola.

"What is this? Black? That's the opposite of purity, Alice! That's—that's _impurity_!"

_You have such a way with words…_ I couldn't say it to her, even though she was horrified by me and my black accessories.

"Have you nothing to say!"

It slips out before I can control it. "It's time for me to leave."

"What?" She stares at me flabbergasted. "I told you, if you don't follow through with this debutante, you're grounded to the inside of the house!"

_You can't ground me if you can't catch me._ I shudder and walk past her, grabbing my blue hoodie from the coat rack. I go to the only exit no one can block – onstage. I see hundreds of eyes staring at me as I stomp down the steps offstage and walk through the garden no one ever used (because bugs aren't fashionable). It was nighttime, with the moon shining brilliantly enough that it was as clear as daylight. Lola's shouting my name and I'm walking faster than she can run. Faster than I've walked. I feel a little ridiculous, stomping through garden paths in a dress, running from a little old woman…

"Alone and free…" I mumbled as I stomped along. "It's scary, but it's better than putting on that ridiculous show. I'll just wait here until it's over then go back home with Lola. Ugh. Who knows how long she'll keep me cooped up in that place when she finds me. Why have I run away, anyway? There's really no point, except for skipping the recital… They'll find me and drag me back to the social, and I'll have accomplished nothing. I'll just be stuck in the house longer than usual."

There had been ten-foot-high rose bushes along the path, walls of green keeping me safe and hidden, but as I approached a sharp right-hand turn, the wall of green ahead of me seemed to have a gap in it. I slowed to a stop not five feet away, gazing at the empty space between bushes. _Has someone yanked out one of the plants?_

"What…?" I whispered.

Beyond the garden path, past the gap in the roses, were trees, thick and dark, their leaves keeping the moonlight from illuminating the ground there as well as the path was lit. The gap was wide enough for two people to walk through at a time, and the more I stared, the more I could swear a figure was sitting in the shade of the gap.

"Is that a rabbit?" I said softly. Whether it was the moonlight (I've heard it causes people to act unusual) or the sheer brusqueness of my recent actions, my thoughts were beginning to spill out before I could think about them.

I saw a pair of ears and suddenly I had the impulses of a five-year-old. I stepped quickly towards the rabbit, reaching down to it – but the ears had disappeared further into the woods, past the opening in the bushes.

"Bunny! Be good!" I hissed, stepping into the shade of the trees. The ears bounced further away. "Come here you freaking rabbit!" I growled, now determined to catch this bunny and cuddle it. I ran after this rabbit past countless trees, too wrapped up in catching him to look back at how far I was from the garden.

Before I knew it, I was deep in the woods, nothing to guide me but a rodent. I didn't think of this until I finally caught him. He scrambled and scratched, but eventually he submitted to my grip. I held him up in front of my face and squinted. He had a black spot that wrapped over the top of his head and leaked down to the sides of his face, as if someone had accidentally spilled black ink on him.

"You're a cute bunny," I said.

"I'm aware. Put me down."

My eyes popped open and I stared disbelievingly at the rodent in my hands. "I'm imagining things."

"Are you deaf? Put me down!"

"Did I just see your mouth move? No I didn't! You're a rabbit! I'm hallucinating, aren't I?"

"I'll admit you're not the ripest carrot in the crop, but hallucinating is overkill. Put me down or I'll bite you."

I dropped him immediately and he landed on my shoes.

"Idiot!" he grumbled, and I heard him scurry away a few feet.

"I'm going insane."

"Some say insanity's the way to go." There was a small white flash, and I thought lightning had just struck in front of me – though I heard nothing akin to electricity.

A white-clad figure now stood in front of me, though I could hardly make out his face or true outline. "What's…?" I mumbled. "I'm crazy. I'm losing it. This… this isn't real."

"Then don't follow me." He turned and disappeared into deeper shadows.

"What? Hey! _Are_ you real? What's going on?" I started towards the same direction he walked in.

You know that horrible feeling you get when you walk up stairs and you think there's an extra stair when there isn't? I stepped in a hole that must've been monumentally deep and that feeling was overwhelming. I was falling and falling, whispering prayers to every god and goddess I could think of. Moments passed and every time I was certain I was about to hit the bottom, I didn't.

"…And please let the eco-freaks put a stop to rabbit season!" I threw in.

_FUMP._

"Finally!" I growled. "I thought I'd never see the end of this rabbit hole." My rear end was sore, but that was it. I wasn't really hurt, just a little bruised. It was a miracle every bone in my body wasn't broken. I started to my feet. "Now, time to figure out what's—"

My hair flew up, as did my skirt, and I fell onto the ceiling. Or was it the floor? When I hit a surface for the second time, I gripped the nearest object and prepared for gravity to reverse itself once more. After a moment, I realized I wasn't falling up (or down) anymore. I looked around and realized I was hanging onto the leg of a wooden table.

I slowly sat up a bit, but still hunching close to the floor so that if I fell again, the impact wouldn't be directly on my head. The walls around me seemed almost papered with doors, with barely an inch separating each doorframe. I slowly pulled myself to my feet and dusted myself off. A small vile labeled _"Drink Me"_ sat on the table, red liquid inside it almost shimmering.

"What is this place?" I whispered, then snorted. "Well, wherever I am, it's better than that stuffy debutante."

I noticed a small brass key laying on the table next to the vile. I snatched it up, my sweaty palm glad to have cool metal against it. I tried the key in each door, but none of them unlocked – then I caught sight of the tiniest door I'd ever seen. It wasn't even as high as my knee, let alone tall enough for me to walk through. Regardless, I tried the key in this little door, and it swung open easily. I leaned down and peeked out to see a nighttime setting, with trees of luminous green, mushrooms of red, orange and purple, and thick green grass, all looking incredible under the soft glow of the moon.

I stood upright and grabbed the little vile labeled _"Drink Me"_ from the table.

"This is probably a bad idea," I said, tugging the cork out of the top and sniffing it. It smelled sweet – nauseatingly sweet. I took a deep breath. "Here's lookin' at you, kid," I mumbled, and took a swig of the stuff.

My entire body shivered, and I was tingling from head to toe. "What have I done now?" I grumbled. The room seemed to grow larger before me, and after a moment of disorientation, I realized that my clothes weren't fitting me properly. I was surrounded by a pool of white and black and blue – meaning I shrank, instead of the room growing.

My underwear didn't fit me anymore.

"This is awkward."

I practically swam through the dress to get to my gloves – they were lace, but they had black fabric lining them, so I would be covered well. I snagged one of the ribbons that had fallen out of my hair and tightened it around myself, fastening the glove in place.

"Time to get out of here."


End file.
